Conventional semiconductor non-volatile memories, such as read-only memories (ROMs), erasable-programmable ROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable-programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), and flash EEPROMs are typically constructed using a double-poly structure. Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a cross-sectional view of the device structure of a conventional nonvolatile memory device 100 including a substrate 102 of a semiconductor crystal such as silicon. The device 100 also includes a channel region 104, a source region 106, a drain region 108, a floating gate dielectric layer 110, a floating gate electrode 112, an inter-gate dielectric layer 114, and a control gate electrode 116. The floating gate dielectric layer 110 isolates the floating gate electrode 112 from the underlying substrate 102 while the inter-gate dielectric layer 114 isolates the control gate electrode 116 from the floating gate electrode 112. As shown in FIG. 1, the floating gate dielectric layer 110, the floating gate electrode 112, the inter-gate dielectric layer 114, and the control gate electrode 116 are all disposed above the surface of substrate 102. The device structure of conventional non-volatile memory devices as shown in FIG. 1 is limited to the degree to which the active devices can be made smaller in order to increase device packing density and performance. Additionally, the stacked dual gate structure which is formed on the substrate surface is sensitive to process variations of overlaps between the floating gate and the source and drain junctions.